'My son was likely murdered', says mother of US student found dead in Siberia

Grieving American mother Dana Madsen-Calcutt, 55, accuses police in the Republic of Buryatia of failing to search properly for her 25 year old son who she fears was killed. His body was found near the tourist village of Arshan on Monday, eight days after he vanished from a guest house where he was staying with friends. 

In a stinging Facebook post, she said: 'The murder investigation is still open and I hate to even think it, but I believe barring some medical catastrophe like an aneurysm or pulmonary embolus, that it is likely. 

'He would have never walked to a place in the pitch dark with his shoes unlaced, no socks, and when he was leaving for a climb in just a few hours that he was so excited about.'

She was scathing about the role of the local police, but praised the 'Russian FBI' - meaning the Investigative Committee. 'I believe that the local police here did not do their job and even to me made innuendos and remarks that were defamatory about Colin, when they didn't know him and should have been looking for him,' she said. I think they are trying to cover up the ineptitude that occurred here before we came - and the pressure to find him was accelerated.'

She had flown to Russia to help with the search for her son. She appealed through Facebook: 'Help me if you can get the right information out there. He deserves better than this. Corruption, cover up abounds here in this place but I am so grateful for the Russian FBI, all of the volunteers, and Colin's dear, dear, friends.'

Specifically, she claimed: 'I want to know if any of you can help me get the right information about Colin out to the press. There a is so much misinformation out that makes him appear foolish and they are simply not correct. It is very hurtful to his family. 

'A. He did not go out in a T-shirt, it was a long sleeve thermal shirt. 

'B. There is no substantiation that he went or told any one he was going outside for a walk. The bathrooms are outside, in an out house. 

'C. If Colin did any drugs (which we don't know) he would have smoked marijuana and that was hours before this event occurred. There was no alcohol involved.

'D. There were not sub zero temps that night. I have been told it was warm, and if anyone knows Colin, he had an incredible tolerance to cool weather. 

'E. He was familiar with this place that he loved to hike, spoke fluent Russian, and had his pack, water and food ready for the climb. Those things were left at the cabin.

'F. He was found a mile a way, one day after the Russian FBI came. Not huddled or covered with leaves but flat on his back in grass with his sleeves pushed up, his boots unlaced, no socks on, his eyes and mouth open. He was not in snow but on the grass under a tree.' She said that an 'unscrupulous rescuer' took a picture of his body 'and sold it to a Russian tabloid.'

'G. We know he wasn't suicidal, he was excited about wanting to work in the (consulate) in Vladivostok or the UN. 

'H. He Loved his friends and family.'

She criticised the media that 'directly wrote that Colin took some drug substance with his friends in the night and it could be the reason of his death' - that 'he smoked too much marihuana and this made him to go to the forest in the middle of the night'.

She added: 'The autopsy was done yesterday (and I hate to say it was in this place). Colin will be taken to Irkutsk today and then we will fly to Moscow and home, hopefully in a few days. I have so many other things to tell you about this debacle but I might not ever be ready to talk about it.'

She stressed: 'I also want to tell all of you how proud I am to be from the U.S. Our two consulate friends from the Moscow U.S. embassy, Courtney and Vassily, have been by our side every step of the way with compassion, wisdom, and love.'

There was no outward sign of injury on Madsen's body, nor any indication he had been robbed, according to local reports. Tests were being conducted for signs of drugs. 

His travelling companions had taken drugs the day before his disappearance. Madsen had been travelling with three friends, two local Russians and another American student on exchange, like him, at a university in Irkutsk.